So Who's talking to Iran?

Iran may be easing toward cooperation with the U.S. The U.S. broke off official dialogue last May, after it blamed a bombing in Saudi Arabia on al-Qaeda leaders based in Iran. But Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, spokesman for Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, tells TIME that Tehran is providing the intelligence services of friendly Western and regional powers with information culled from some 500 al-Qaeda captives. "If Americans need any information," he says, "they can ask through countries friendly to us."

The two sides are even talking again. Sources tell TIME that several former senior U.S. officials have recently held...